PASCAGOULA — Jackson County leaders Monday decided to cut funds for a county project to restore Round Island and discussed dropping the project altogether.

But the city of Pascagoula is moving ahead with some restoration and also plans to move the lighthouse.

Round Island restoration was among 18 county projects to be funded by CIAP, the national program that gives a portion of the revenue from offshore oil and gas drilling to coastal states.

But when the county Board of Supervisors was told Monday that there will be a $1.3 million shortfall in what Jackson County was projected to receive, the board took the recommendation of its consultant and drastically reduced funding for Round Island. The project would have added fortification and rip rap to help the island better weather storms.

It went from roughly $2 million to $669,000.

Supervisor Tommy Brodnax advocated dropping the project from the list. Supervisor Mike Mangum said that maybe the restoration work Pascagoula is doing will be enough.

All Gulf states and counties will receive less than projected because Alaska pumped up its offshore lease program and will receive a larger portion of the pot in the coming years, the consultant explained.

The city of Pascagoula, which owns the eastern tip that held the Round Island lighthouse, received about $400,000 from FEMA and MEMA to dredge sand from the Sound and to pile it in back onto the beaches on the Gulf side of the island to replace what Katrina washed away. Both Georges and Katrina wreaked havoc on the little barrier island that is so close to Pascagoula.

City Programs Manager Jaci Turner said that the beach restoration work has been going on for two to three months. She said the sand looks like large piles of brown dirt, but eventually will be bleached white by the sun. She said the city project also includes some repair to the jetty that had been built after Hurricane Georges to protect the base of the lighthouse.

However, Katrina completely undermined that work and now the city, with state and federal approval, is seeking bids from contractors to move the base of the lighthouse off the island and onto the mainland.

The city has a grant that will pay for part of the cost of restoring the lighthouse to stand on the mainland.

Believe those who search for the truth ...
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The people trying to save the lighthouse have talked to Dennis Barnell (President St. George Lighthouse Association) on what his group did to re-build Cape St. George Lighthouse. So expect good things in the future.

President of Florida Keys Reef Lights Foundation, Godfather of Jones Point River Lighthouse, member and EVP of Florida Lighthouse Association and member of other lighthouse groups.

PASCAGOULA — It likely will be late April or May before a contractor pulls the base of the Round Island Lighthouse out of the Mississippi Sound and barges it up the Pascagoula River to its new location. The city has all the permits in place and funding secured to bring what’s left of the lighthouse ashore and place it in the loop of right-of-way land just south of the high-rise bridge on U.S. 90 at Pascagoula Street. Jaci Turner, the city’s project manager, said last week contractor Jason Borries soon will be given a green light to begin. The city is just making sure everything is in order, she said.

A city team recently returned from Florida, where members visited the St. George Island Lighthouse. It had tumbled into the Gulf several years ago and was rebuilt in a new location on the island. In that project, the city enlisted volunteers to help clean the old lighthouse’s bricks before they were reused, and it added a lighthouse keeper’s home and visitor center.

Turner said they wanted to study how that community dealt with its project before they make the final plans for the Round Island Lighthouse reconstruction. “We want to make sure we don’t do something they wish they hadn’t,” she said. She believes Pascagoula will be ready for Borries to begin in three to four weeks. First, the contractor will dig under the base and will install a platform so the base can be lifted onto a barge in one piece.

The lighthouse was toppled by Hurricane Georges, then Katrina uprooted the base.Turner said the island work will be slow and will take about a month to complete.

When they’re ready to barge the base upriver to its new site, Pascagoula will announce it so people can line the river and watch the historic move, Turner said.

She said Borries doesn’t plan to prepare the site at the lighthouse’s new home until he has the base in the vicinity.She said he won’t know what he’s dealing with for site preparation until he gets a look at the bottom of the base.

Turner said the city secured the original lighthouse plans from the National Archives. It was built in the mid-1800s. The city also salvaged as much as two-thirds of the original brick work, and the metal and glass from the lantern. It’s all in storage.

She said once the base is in place and people can see that the move from island to mainland is really happening, serious fundraising will begin to pay for fully restoring the structure.

Turner said plans still need to be finalized, an assessment of volunteer labor made and grants secured before they can determine how much money they’ll need to raise for the complete restoration. A state Department of Archives & History grant will pay for moving the base.

"There are two pips in a beaut, four beauts in a lulu, Eight lulus in a doozy, and sixteen doozies in a humdinger.